ANKARA - In the final declaration of the HEDEP Democratic Local Governments Women's Conference, it was emphasized that the principle of equal representation would be acted upon in all decision-making mechanisms.

 

The final declaration of the Democratic Local Governments Women's Conference of the People's Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP) has been announced. In the final declaration of the conference held yesterday with the motto "To Free Local Governments with Jin Jiyan Azadî", it was emphasized that the conference was dedicated to the women struggling in the person of Hevrin Xelef and Yusra Derwêş and Kader Ortakaya, who were murdered in Northern and Eastern Syria.

 

EMPHASIS ON EQUAL REPRESENTATION

 

In the declaration, which emphasized "equal representation", the following statements were included: "We implemented our principle of co-presidency and equal representation in all our mechanisms in the local elections held in 2014. We did not take a single step back in the face of the attacks on our system because we are not the ones who fit local governments into municipal buildings, We are the ones who implemented local democracy based on decentralization. We implemented the voice and decision-making authority in all decision-making mechanisms, based on the principle of equal representation. We created our assemblies from villages to neighborhoods, from districts to provinces, based on our principle of equal representation.

 

It has become clear that there is a need for a stronger fight against the criminalization of our system, which we have built with a lot of effort and struggle, trustee practices and increasing attacks. Our priority will be not only the principle of equal representation and co-chairmanship, but also ensuring greater participation of women in decision-making mechanisms. We promise that we will build our system in the strongest way, especially as we go to local elections. No one should have any doubt that we will meet the local elections with policies that will ensure women's active participation in local governments, from our provincial council members to municipal council members and municipal co-chairs.

 

Our fight against violence against women is, of course, a struggle too big to fit into institutions; however, we will reopen our women's centers and shelters that were closed by trustees. We will rebuild our own production areas against women's poverty and unemployment.

 

3RD WAY POLITICS

 

The struggle of women who became pioneers of the new life by carrying out their self-defense against ISIS gangs in Rojava and Shengal has been a source of inspiration for us. This process, woven from women's villages to cooperatives, from women's constitution to women's university, has revealed the road map of our 3rd Way policy. It has once again shown us the fact that the construction of the Democratic Republic passes through local democracy. History is full of examples that no system can survive in which people and women are not included, from decision-making mechanisms to management mechanisms. Based on all these facts, we will implement the construction of our Democratic Republic claim, starting from the most local level, with our women's libertarian local governments model. In every work we carry out under the leadership of women, we will embrace all the colors of the society with all their differences, against the monist, sexist, militarist male-dominated understanding.

 

THE COUNCIL OF WOMEN

 

We will do this by creating our women's neighborhood and village councils, protecting our cities and living spaces, based on local and local democracy, defending our co-presidency system in the strongest way and making it functional in all our mechanisms.

 

ÖCALAN IS THE GUARANTOR OF HONORABLE PEACE

 

The government, which tries to establish itself through enemy politics, has today turned isolation into a regime. It fueled the war by deepening the isolation. Mr. Öcalan has been held in absolute isolation for 24 months. We say it today as we did yesterday. It is the existence of the Kurdish people who are wanted to be isolated in İmralı Prison. We will say it without getting tired. Mr. Öcalan is the guarantor of honorable peace in these lands. It is the key to the democratic solution of the Kurdish issue. He is the greatest hope for the people of the world with his ideas, especially the Middle East. It is women who will end the absolute isolation imposed on Mr. Öcalan and bring him to his physical freedom. It is the struggle and determination that grows under the leadership of women. We will act with this belief and determination. We will lift the absolute isolation by implementing our democratic, ecological, women's libertarian paradigm and local government approach.

 

WE WILL FIGHT AGAINST SPECIAL WAR

 

It was once again emphasized in our conference that the biggest area of struggle against the special war policies carried out especially on Kurdish women and youth is local governments. We will implement stronger policies in local governments with this responsibility and awareness. We will talk about the ways and methods of this together. We will act together with our women and youth council and carry out awareness activities by traveling from village to village, neighborhood to neighborhood. We will expose these dirty policies, especially those carried out against young women, wherever we are. By re-establishing our institutions that will carry out work in this field, we will not leave any neighborhood or street behind with these institutions, the mobile teams we will create, and our neighborhood and village councils because we know this very well! The most powerful method to combat special war policies is to expand women's organization and solidarity.

 

EMPHASIS ON THE STRUGGLE AGAINST ASSIMILATION

 

We know very well that women are the leading force in the fight against the assimilation policies carried out by the fascist AKP-MHP male alliance, which maintains its existence through the denial of the Kurdish people, and its local representation, the trustees. And we are aware of the fact that local governments are the mechanism that will wage the strongest fight against this. The fact that our policies based on multilingualism, from municipalities to neighborhood and village names, were targeted by the trustees, and the closure of our 33 language institutions, Kurdish schools, nurseries and women's centers affected the lives of women the most. Mother tongue is a right and we will not give up defending it until the end. We will implement our paradigm based on multilingualism wherever we are. We will develop alternatives that will expand our fight against the obstacles to the Kurdish language, we will reopen our municipal institutions and we will protect our institutions until the end.

 

The war waged on our nature, streams, lakes, trees and forests with the politics of profit and plunder has not left us any room to breathe. From Cudi to Akbelen, our forests are destroyed and no living space is left for us. Forest fires, especially in Kurdistan, and the flooding of historical cities are also attacks aimed at destroying the history and culture of a people. The concreting policy carried out by trustees has turned the fabric of our cities upside down today. We will rebuild our women-friendly cities in the face of these attacks on our nature and living spaces. We will not give up protecting our trees and forests even for a moment. We will rebuild our living spaces based on our ecological paradigm.

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